The Gurupi Mosaic will have shared management between the Wirazu Indigenous Association and ICMBio.

The Gurupi Mosaic Management Council, a group of protected areas between Maranhão and eastern Pará, will have shared management between the Wirazu Indigenous Association and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which will be in charge of the executive secretariat for the next few years. The decision was made during the 6th Ordinary Meeting of the Mosaic Management Council, held between July 18 and 21, in Santa Inês (MA). 

The last in-person meeting of the Gurupi Mosaic Council took place in October 2021, and the executive secretariat was being handled by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN). 

“There were many workshops and meetings to get where we are today, and now we are consolidating the Gurupi Mosaic, which is so fundamental for all of us indigenous peoples of Maranhão,” stated Marcilene Guajajara, from the Coordination of Organizations and Articulations of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Maranhão (Coapima).

The meeting was supported by the Indigenous Landscapes project, a partnership between ISPN, the Indigenous Work Center (CTI), the Nupef Institute, and the Norwegian Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI).

The selection of the new executive secretary.

The main objective of the executive secretariat is to advise.manage information and administer operations of the Gurupi Mosaic CouncilAhead ofSince 2018, ISPN has played this role during one of the most turbulent periods in the country's history. Whether at the federal level, with a government unfavorable to socio-environmental policies, or in the sphere of public health, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which claimed so many indigenous lives.

“We worked very hard to strengthen the council, despite the context we were facing. This strength is shown in the greater engagement of indigenous leaders around the Mosaico agendas, with increasingly qualified dialogues,” says João Guilherme Nunes Cruz, coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples Program at ISPN.

ISPN also reviewed its actions as secretariat and council member, highlighting the implementation of projects to promote integrated environmental and territorial management of the Gurupi Mosaic, such as: portfolios of micro and small projects (funding lines for family and community-based sustainable development projects); preparation of Environmental and Territorial Management Plans (PGTA) and Consultation Protocols; agroforestry and restoration actions; support for mobilizations in favor of the rights of indigenous peoples, among others. others.

It also stood out The management of the secretariat will be shared with an indigenous representative, chosen by the Maynumy Indigenous Association, from the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Land.

“ISPN inaugurated the shared management model with an indigenous association because we understand the importance of strengthening indigenous governance and leadership within the Gurupi Mosaic, especially given the mosaic's unique characteristic of being composed mostly of indigenous lands, something unprecedented in the country,” highlighted João Guilherme.

At the time of the change in leadership, the council members understood that this model should continue and thus decided once again on a shared management, this time between the Wirazu Indigenous Association, from the Caru Indigenous Land, and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), represented by the Gurupi Biological Reserve (Rebio). 

“We are very pleased to share the executive secretariat with Wirazu; this well represents the spirit of the Mosaic, which is to work towards integrated management,” stated Eloísa Mendonça, environmental analyst at ICMBio, based at the Gurupi Biological Reserve. 

"Our partnership can only benefit the biodiversity that exists in our forests in the state of Maranhão. We will continue to be united, because this is the only way to defend our territories," said Chief Antônio Wilson, of the Wirazu Association.

Launch of the Newsletter about the Gurupi Mosaic

Another important moment of the 6th Ordinary Meeting of the Management Council was the launch of the publication "Information Bulletin on the Gurupi Mosaic," which compiles information from each territory within this group of protected areas. The publication, produced by ISPN, includes, among other data, a timeline of relevant historical events related to the Gurupi Mosaic, as well as fact sheets for each protected area containing location maps, deforestation and hotspots, territorial and environmental management initiatives promoted in each of these areas, and other information.

“We hope that this information will reach a wider audience, especially in the villages and traditional communities of the Mosaic,” stated Robert Miller, technical advisor at ISPN, one of the organizers of the publication. To that end, the newsletter will be distributed in villages, towns, schools, community-based associations, universities, state institutions, civil society organizations, and those that are part of the council.

To access the newsletter about the Gurupi Mosaic, click here.

Proposal for ethno-environmental corridors and projects for the Mosaic.

Through reports and discussions, various planned and/or ongoing actions in the Mosaic territories were presented, led by both indigenous peoples and traditional communities, as well as government agencies, companies, and civil society. Two of these were proposals for the creation of ethno-ecological corridors aimed at expanding the connection between the remaining forest areas of the Maranhão Amazon. 

Ecological corridors, according to the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC) – Law 9.985 / 2000These are areas that connect conservation units or forest fragments, separated by human influence, that seek to allow the free passage of animals, the dispersal of seeds for the restoration of degraded areas, and the maintenance of populations that need large forest areas to survive.

The first corridor, from ICMBio, aims to connect the 80 km distance between the Araribóia Indigenous Territory and the forest block of the Mosaic. The second, 183 km long, was proposed by the Suzano company and covers the central-eastern portion of the Gurupi Biological Reserve. 

Technicians from the Amazonian Sustainable Management Project (PAGES) also presented the initiative, which has the Gurupi Mosaic as one of its priority areas of action. With financial support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of the State of Maranhão, the project will invest in integrated management actions for indigenous lands and conservation units, food security, and restoration of degraded areas.

Working Groups of the Council, Restoration and De-intrusion of the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory

The Working Groups (WGs) of the Council are the body responsible for directing themes listed as priorities for the Mosaic and also for fostering dialogue and closer ties between council members and their institutions. In total, there are four WGs operating within the Gurupi Mosaic: Territorial Protection, Education and Culture, Public Policies, and Restoration. 

During the event, the Working Groups met and shared the main actions that took place in the territories and listed priority actions for the short, medium, and long term. This is the case, for example, of the Restoration Working Group, which discussed the resumption of environmental recovery projects for the Mosaic based on the funding opportunities that are emerging within the new political context currently experienced in the country.

One of the priorities identified by the working groups was the urgent need to restore the Awá Indigenous Territory, a large portion of which has been degraded over the years by illegal occupation by farms and other forms of non-indigenous settlement, as well as by illegal deforestation. Officially recognized in 2005, the Indigenous Territory is inhabited by the recently contacted Awá-Guajá people, and also includes groups living in voluntary isolation within its boundaries. It was only in 2014 that the federal government, through an interministerial task force, completed the process of removing non-indigenous occupants from the region, leaving behind a trail of destroyed forest. Under the previous government, due to the weakening of environmental enforcement policies, the area has suffered constant invasions. 

Representatives from the Alto Rio Guamá Indigenous Territory also reported on the recent process of removing non-indigenous people from part of their territory, which had been occupied by approximately 1,6 non-indigenous people for over 20 years, according to the... National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai)Chief Valdeci Tembé spoke about the achievement and the challenges of recovering the areas that were degraded during this period of invasion.

"We are working to monitor the area that underwent the eviction, and now we have to think about how we are going to recover these areas," said Valdeci.

What is the Gurupi Mosaic?

The Gurupi Mosaic forms an ethno-environmental corridor rich in socio-biodiversity, with an area of ​​influence of approximately 46 km² in Maranhão and eastern Pará. It is formed by the Gurupi Biological Reserve (Rebio Gurupi) and the Indigenous Lands of Alto Turiaçu, Awá, Caru, Rio Pindaré, Araribóia and Alto Rio Guamá (in Pará), belonging to the Guajajara, Awa-Guajá, Ka'apor and Tembé peoples.  

In the state of Maranhão, it harbors the largest preserved area of ​​Amazon Rainforest and, since 2014, has proposed social and ecological connectivity between conservation units and indigenous lands, based on the need to find ways to implement initiatives for territorial protection and biodiversity conservation. Its area is one of the most threatened by the pressure of deforestation and other illegal acts, such as land invasion, which threaten biodiversity, ecosystem services, quality of life, and the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities. 

The Gurupi Biological Reserve is home to endangered fauna species, such as the jaguar and the golden parakeet, the national bird of Brazil. The region is also habitat to endemic species, such as the white-faced capuchin monkey. (Cebus kaapori), which characterizes it, from an ecological point of view, as part of the Belém Center of Endemism. 

The Mosaic also includes indigenous groups living in voluntary isolation. The presence and millennia-long occupation of the Tupi people in the region ensured its conservation, suggesting that traditional indigenous ways of life are interdependent with nature, managed sustainably.  

The official recognition of the Gurupi Mosaic is in process, still requiring the inclusion of one more conservation unit (UC), in addition to the Gurupi Biological Reserve, in order to comply with the provisions of the National System of Conservation Units (Law 9.985/200).

Text: Andreza Andrade / ISPN Communications Office

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